Journal mcgrew's Journal: I hate it when I'm right 11
I can't believe that a layman can call something that the educated professionals can't see. I'd just like to say right now, if you recieved a degree in economics you wasted your money learning quackery. If there was anything real to the study of economics, there would be no more poverty anywhere; nobody would be hungry, nobody would be homeless, there would be little use for war.
"Forward!" he cried from the rear, and the front rank died. The General sat, and the lines on the map moved from side to side.
As Pink Floyd noted in that insightful lyric, wars are fought over money and men's personal power over other men.
Down and out: It cant be helped if theres a lot of it about. With, without: and who'll deny its what the fightings all about?
Out of the way, its a busy day, I've got things on my mind.
For the want of the price of tea and a slice the old man died.
I wrote over a month ago that I feared another global depression was imminent, based on one single history book that I had to read in a general studies undergraduate class some thirty five years ago. The update to that journal is here, and today is yet another update.
The first update quoted the Treasury secretary parrotting Herbert Hoover. Hoover, in case you never had a 20th century American history class, was President when the US stock market crashed in 1929 and started the "Great Depression", a worldwide depression that lasted until Hitler and Hirohito declared war on the world and the world was forced to ramp up and defeat them. After the "war to end all wars" (quickly followed by the Korean War) the world's economy finally staggered to its feet.
Today the AP writes:
"The fact is people are scared and the only thing they're doing is selling," said Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer's Investment Research. "Investors are cleaning out portfolios and getting rid of everything because nothing seems to be working."
The selling was so extreme that only 98 stocks rose on the NYSE -- and 3,092 dropped. That's a telling sign considering the stock market is considered a leading economic indicator, with investors tending to buy and sell based on where they believe the economy will be in six to nine months.
Monday's steep decline on Wall Street indicates that investors are becoming more convinced that the country is leading a prolonged economic crisis that is spreading to other nations. Over the weekend, governments across Europe rushed to prop up failing banks, while the governments of Germany, Ireland and Greece also said they would guarantee bank deposits.
Historian Frederick Lewis Allen wrote, in his 1931 history of the 1920s
Fear, however, did not long delay its coming. As the price structure crumbled there was a sudden stampede to get out from under. By eleven o'clock traders on the floor of the Stock Exchange were in a wild scramble to "sell at the market." Long before the lagging ticker could tell what was happening, word had gone out by telephone and telegraph that the bottom was dropping out of things, and the selling orders redoubled in volume. The leading, stocks were going down two, three, and even five points between sales. Down, down, down.... Where were the bargain-hunters who were supposed to come to the rescue at times like this? Where were the investment trusts, which were expected to provide a cushion for the market by making new purchases at low prices? Where were the big operators who had declared that they were still bullish? ere were the powerful bankers who were supposed to be able at any moment to support prices? There seemed to be no support whatever. Down, down, down. The roar of voices which rose from the floor of the Exchange had become a roar of panic.
United States Steel had opened at 205 1/2. It crashed through 200 and presently was at 193 1/2. General Electric, which only a few weeks before had been selling above 400, had opened this morning at 315 -- now it had slid to 283. Things were even worse with Radio: opening at 68 3/4, it bad gone dismally down through the sixties and the fifties and forties to the abysmal price of 44 1/2. And as for Montgomery Ward, vehicle of the hopes of thousands who saw the chain store as the harbinger of the new economic era, it had dropped headlong from 83 to 50. In the space of two short hours, dozens of stocks lost ground which it had required many months of the bull market to gain.
Meanwhile, the credit crunch has my mortgage payments through the roof. I made a mortgage payment and paid my $145 bar tab and now I'm flat broke; if Charlie pays me the ten bucks she owes me I might not have to walk to work before next payday. I called Felber's yesterday to see if I could run a tab until payday, and the answer was "nope". Mike had told me that he'd had trouble getting folks to pay up.
Of course, like the rest of the credit crunch, it only hurts his business. That's probably close to a hundred dollars he won't be making. I'll be staying sober, and if I do get any beer it'll be drank at home.
I've taken in boarders, Tami and Linda. Linda says she's paying me Friday, and if so it will be a relief, as next weekend is a three day weekend for me. She got in a fight with her boyfriend over the weekend; he stormed in Saturday morning and I threateded to call the police on him. So I don't really think I can count on her rent payment. Charlie's feuding with Linda and I haven't seen her since Linda moved in.
I had a total of five beers over the weekend. I imagine Anheuser-Bush stock will tank now...
You might be wrong on one part... (Score:2)
Anheuser-Bush stock will tank now...
I've heard reports before that when the markets go down, shares of alcoholic beverage companies go up. Apparently when it really hits the fan, people believe that they can still afford to find solace at the bottom of a bottle. After all, even when you have very little money, cheap beer is still, well, cheap.
The increase in booze revenue also parallels observations of a decrease in people seeing mental health professionals, unfortunately. Apparently there are people who are much more willing to pay $10
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Depends on whose economics you're reading (Score:2)
If anybody's still buying Keynesian school economics after the 1970s, then I want their contact info, because they'll buy pretty much anything. Unfortunately, I hear that's what they're still pushing on the kiddies at college these days.
I dispute the notion that there's nothing real to economics because we don't live in a perfect economic utopia. That's like saying there's nothing real about physics because we don't have in-home anti-matter power generators and Infinite Improbability Drives in our cars.
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I think I need to clarify what I think economics is about. There are at least a dozen major schools of economic thought, and they all agree or disagree in many important ways.
Economics is nothing more than the study of human action with respect to limited resources. Everything else is window dressing on this simple statement. Without humans making decisions[1] and taking actions, there's simply nothing. Without resources, there's nothing to take action with (time is a resource). If resources were all unlimi
The Dismal Science (Score:2)
I'd just like to say right now, if you recieved a degree in economics you wasted your money learning quackery. If there was anything real to the study of economics, there would be no more poverty anywhere; nobody would be hungry, nobody would be homeless, there would be little use for war.
I have a degree in Economics from a fine University a bit north of your present location.
I think your expectations out of the field are far too high, but I'll also point out that the general human condition has improved dramatically over the centuries, and particularly over the last hundred years or so. Poverty, real poverty, Third World poverty, is largely nonexistent in the United States. You may protest that your bank account is currently on empty along with your gas guage, but yet you still have a hou
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I have a degree in Economics from a fine University a bit north of your present location.
Indeed, we do have some excellent universities in Illinois.
the general human condition has improved dramatically over the centuries, and particularly over the last hundred years or so.
True, but I think that has a whole lot less to do with economics than with advances in science and engineering, particularly agriculture.
I only wish to point out just how well-off you are.
Actually, I have anscestors who were kings, counts,
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True, but I think that has a whole lot less to do with economics than with advances in science and engineering, particularly agriculture.
How are technological advances brought to market? How is equipment purchased? How are the goods bought, sold, and paid for?
Take your example: agriculture. Advances in technology were driven by profit-seeking enterprises. Complex farm machines are financed through the banking system. The resulting commodities are bought and sold on the commodities markets. Of particular importance is the futures market, which allows agricultural businesses (from family farms an one of the spectrum to massive corporate
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It is said you that if you laid all the economists in the world end-on-end you would never reach a conclusion. (-:
What we see today is a direct result of the theories of economists, particularly the naive "Free market" variety.
Ironically, before there was such a thing as economists, we seemed to manage to acheive all the same things we do know.
Golgafrinchan "B" ark material I think Steve.
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It is said you that if you laid all the economists in the world end-on-end you would never reach a conclusion. (-:
"Give me a one-armed economist." -- Harry S. Truman (-:
What we see today is a direct result of the theories of economists, particularly the naive "Free market" variety.
I won't fault you for this, because most laymen tend to lump together "anyone who deals with money" as "economists", but my guess is that the true objects of your ire are probably really the quantitative analysts. These people are in the totally separate discipline of Finance.
Also, what do you mean when you say '"Free market" variety economist'. This is not a discipline in Economics that I am familiar with. Could you please give me some examples of
Small note (Score:1)